Guardian 25,988 / Chifonie

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It’s Chifonie, not Rufus, providing the ‘gentle start to the week’ today, so there’s more in the way of simple charades than double and cryptic definitions, which will please some people. There’s a whiff of déjà vu about some of the clues [14ac, 1dn, 7dn] but it’s generally fairly clued, with some nice surfaces. Thanks to Chifonie.

 
Across

1 Ulster children initially see well
NICELY
NI [Ulster – generally accepted for crossword purposes] + C [Children initially] + ELY [see]

4 Corrupt umpire is immoral
IMPURE
Anagram [corrupt] of UMPIRE

9 How extreme viewpoints are committed to paper
IN BLACK AND WHITE
Cryptic  definition

10 Reprieve the Parisian gent
LET OFF
LE [the Parisian] TOFF [ gent]

11 Letter left with master
LANDLORD
L [left] + AND [with] + LORD [master]

12 None hurt badly in retreat
ON THE RUN
Anagram [badly] of NONE HURT

14 Witness at big match
ATTEST
AT TEST [big match]

15 A sailor tours museum for manifestation of a god
AVATAR
A TAR [a sailor] round V [and] A – Victoria and Albert [museum]

8 Group after record for slimming
TAPERING
RING [group] after TAPE [record]

21 Trot around figure that’s metamorphosed
RESHAPED
RED [Trotskyite] round SHAPE [figure] – a rather weak clue, I think

22 Vehicle in process of decay? Tough!
ROBUST
BUS [vehicle] in ROT [process of decay]

24 Hitherto elegant model is exposed
IN THE ALTOGETHER
Anagram [model] of HITHERTO ELEGANT

25 Insect can escape
MAYFLY
MAY [can] FLY [escape

26 Still containing special implant
INSERT
INERT [still] round [containing] S [special]

Down

1 Material makes granny cry
NANKEEN
NAN [granny] + KEEN [cry]

2 It is found in chamber orchestra, originally
CELLO
CELL [chamber] + O [Orchestra originally]

3 Devil is cruel, if disturbed
LUCIFER
Anagram [disturbed] of CRUEL IF

5 Crazy over North American icon
MADONNA
MAD [crazy] + ON [over] + NA [North American]

6 Top composer has direction restricted? Stuff that!
UPHOLSTER
UP [top?] + HOLST [composer] + E [direction] + R [restricted]

7 Blackmails with former wrongs
EXTORTS
EX [former] + TORTS [wrongs]: I’d question the definition here: it’s money that is extorted and a person who is blackmailed

8 Fine US comic is dead
FALLEN
F [fine] + [Woody] ALLEN [US comic]: the comic who immediately sprang to my mind was Irish!

13 Slap people stifling laugh and retire
HIT THE HAY
HIT [slap] THEY [people] round [stifling] HA [laugh]

16 Enthusiasm when circuiting volcano in the country
VIETNAM
VIM [enthusiasm] round [circuiting] ETNA [volcano]

17 Artist hit poor Leah
RAPHAEL
RAP [hit] + anagram [poor] of LEAH

18 Function is mounted in gallery until now
TO DATE
Reversal [mounted] of DO [function] in TATE

19 Priest finds Spanish region ideal
PARAGON
P [priest] + ARAGON [Spanish region]

20 Name a perfume that’s showing potential
NASCENT
N [name] A SCENT [a perfume]

23 Hit man is to have a swim
BATHE
BAT [hit] + HE [man] [there’s a lot of hitting going on in the down clues!]

36 comments on “Guardian 25,988 / Chifonie”

  2. Thanks Eileen! I agree about the “gentle start” to the week and I enjoyed the puzzle (though with similar feelings of déjà vu in a few cases).

    One (very minor) typo in your blog: in your explanation of 2 down you want “CELL [chamber]” not “CELLO [chamber]”.

  4. Thanks Eileen and Chifonie

    Well summarised by Eileen. Some very neat cluing. I particularly liked 21a, 24a and 16d.

  5. Thanks Eileen
    In 10ac I think you meant to say LE (the Parisian) TOFF (gent).

    I don’t see a problem with 7dn. Under ‘blackmail’, Collins has “to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort” and Chambers “to extort money from (a person)”.

  6. Nice and gentle, as you say – even for us Newbies. Managed to work out why my answers were right before coming on here, which was a first!

    Thanks to both…

  7. Thanks, Gaufrid – more haste, less speed! Corrected now.

    I think the Chambers definition illustrates my point: to blackmail someone is to extort money from them. Although Collins [usually my preferred dictionary!] gives ‘blackmail = extort’, I can’t construct a sentence in which the two are interchangeable, since they take different objects. [I’d have no problem with the nouns, eg ‘That’s downright blackmail / extortion’.]

  8. Thanks Eileen. NE corner held me up due to slowness to see MADONNA. That and LANDLORD were very nice clues I thought.

    But yet another grid with only two links between halves. We had two of these last week too. Not a total bar to solving pleasure, but I wish they wouldn’t.

  9. Pleasant enough puzzle.

    Thanks Eileen for an excellent blog. Yes, I can see the issue with the grid. After solving the bottom half I got stuck on one or two in the top half. I, too, liked LANDLORD.

  10. Quite different to Rufus and it took me a while to get on the wavelength, lots of lateral thinking. Thanks Eileen and Chifonie.

  12. Thanks to Eileen for the blog. You corrected me on 26where I had INJECT without being able to explain why 🙁

    I liked LANDLORD

  13. Thanks Eileen.

    Re 7, I wonder if blackmail and extort can be used intransitively, as in “What does a blackmailer do? He blackmails, or he extorts”?

    I have much more of a problem with “up” and “top” in 6d.

  14. This one was indeed a gentle start to the week. MADONNA was my LOI.

    As far as the grid is concerned it didn’t bother me. When I started solving years ago I used to be much more comfortable with certain grids, but I don’t even notice them now.

  15. Hi Chris @13

    ‘I have much more of a problem with “up” and “top” in 6d.’

    I hoped someone might bring that one up!

  16. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen

    A small hold up with INSERT at the end in this gentle offering.

    I had parsed UPHOLSTERER slightly differently – had [S]UPER = top with a restricted direction (ie S removed) around HOLST.

  17. Hi bruce @16

    This clue was actually my last one to parse and I did play about with your interpretation but thought ‘restricted direction’ was rather odd – but then so is ‘up = top’! Anyone? [But you’re probably all, like me, really, watching Laura! 😉 ]

  18. This was an enjoyable puzzle to start the week. My favourites were 10a, 25a, 11a, 19d, 23d, 24a, 26a (last in).

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen.

  19. Does anyone else find it odd to refer to Woody Allen as a comic? He hasn’t done stand-up in decades, and at this point he’s far better known as a director.

    I guess it could be Tim Allen…but the problem with that is that Tim Allen isn’t funny. 😛

  20. Well, mrpenny @18, as I said, my first thought at seeing ‘comic’ was ‘Dave’, and then, after realising it was US, it took a minute or two to arrive at Woody, the only one I could think of. I’ve never heard of Tim – funny or not. 😉

  21. “The Beatles?”
    “A poular light-entertainment combination group, M’lud..”

    Tim Allen was Buzz Lightyear.

    He wasn’t bad in Galaxy Quest, either. I honestly missed Woody Allen. I went for Buzz rather than Woody. (Tom Hanks will be miffed.)

  22. Gracie Allen?

    I was a bit surprised at S for “special” in 26ac – is this a standard abbreviation?

  23. muffin @ 22

    I’m not old enough to remember directly but I have seen films where Special Constables used to wear a white arm-band with an S. Special dishes on restaurant menus are often marked with an S and in a train timetable, special trains were signalled with an S. It’s also the S in SAS (though I believe that is frowned upon). Chambers OKs it but you have to scroll down a way.

  24. Oh, muffin, bless you!

    @My comment 20, I nearly said that my first ‘US comic’ thought was Gracie, then looked her up and was too embarrassed when I saw how far back she went. 😉

    Thanks, aztobesed, for the smile. I used to use that anecdote with my A Level students when discussing the role of the judiciary. I was reassured, when looking up the archive on Tramp’s Toy Story themed puzzle http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/09/18/guardian-25744-tramp/ to remember that I was not the only one to be unfamiliar with Toy Story, let alone the names of those supplying the voices. 😉

    I still say that ‘comic’ alone would have been sufficient clue for 8dn!

  25. Forgot to thank you for the blog Eileen.

    I was surprised that Woody never appeared on my radar for ALLEN. I agree that there were quite a few who could have been pressed into service had he left out the US – as well as Dave, there’s another possibility with Steve and our home grown comic talents include Keith and his brother, Kevin, his daughter, Lily who’s also quite comical and going back a bit there was also Chesney, who with Flanagan was very much the definitive British comic duo. I’d even say you could nominate Patrick (who everyone thought was American anyway) who may not instantly spring to mind as a comic but one of his final roles was in Blackadder.

  26. Thanks to Eileen (I too forgot to thank you for the blog) and aztobesed for explaining “special” for me.

  27. Many thanks, Eileen.

    Last Monday we rushed through a Rufus, then decided to tackle that weekend’s Paul – also easy, also very enjoyable.

    Today we rushed through this Chifonie and were in need of something more.
    Yes, Chifonie/Armonie is a very precise and pleasant setter, one who cares for the surface, but … we were in need of something more.
    So, we tackled tomorrow’s (!!!) Punk (aka Paul) in the Indy.
    Not a hard puzzle either but what fun.
    He did – at last – something that I was expecting to happen one day or another.

    I know, we shouldn’t talk about puzzles that lie in the future.
    But please, Ye All, give it a go in tomorrow’s Independent.

    Fine(st) clues today: 11ac, 24ac, 25ac, 2d and, actually, quite a few more.
    But easy, yes.

  28. My first thought for ALLEN was Woody. My second was what a poor clue, what’s next?

    Nothing above persuaded me otherwise, until Gracie came to light. Primarily a comic she’s also dead, so there’s an overlap of the full
    and subsidiary definitions. (Not the same thing as double duty.)

    So would just ‘comic’, indicating Dave, be better? No, because he was never known as just Allen. There was The Dave Allen Show and
    Dave Allen at Large. Gracie was well-known as half of Burns and Allen.

    So I reckon that the setter had Gracie in mind. But the difficulty we’ve had in parsing, as opposed to solving, still makes it a poor clue.
    ‘Fine man is dead’ would be OK. A little trite but then so is much of the puzzle.

  29. Well if we’re going down the route of subsidiaries or ‘self referential’ clues, I’d nominate Steve Allen, who is also no longer with us and produced a comic novelty record called ‘The Man in the Street’ who presumably got in that location having had a drop or two and fallen.

  32. I am posting this late as I didnt want to cause another flaming session and I respect Eileens pre-emptive damage control

    NI [Ulster – generally accepted for crossword purposes]

    I would like to see this as “once accepted for crossword purposes” like other offensive terminology that was once acceptable.
    I just want to register my objection.
    This is offensive to many people including the people of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan and to the victims and families of the organisations – paramilitaries, religious fundamentalists and others – that have sought in the past and to a lesser extent now to give a historic geographic legitimacy to this specious use of non-analogous terms.
    I understand this is not an issue for most but if setters look at the news that will be coming out of NI (not Ulster) in the coming weeks of the marching season they may realise using these terms is akin to cluing the letters EDL with “Anglican cultural ambassadors”

  34. stiofain @32

    Please take this in the spirit it is intended. I am not intending to be offensive!

    “using these terms is akin to cluing the letters EDL with “Anglican cultural ambassadors” ???

    No it’s not.

    NI is a geographical reference to the location of Ulster which is undoubtedly true.

    Setters can not be expected to consider the local sensibilities regarding any geographical reference. Or perhaps we should forbid all such references just in case!

    While we are at it the following must also go:

    references to army rank as they may offend pacifists

    references to peerage title etc as they may offend Democrats

    no use of “old person” etc for oap as not all old people are oaps

    The list is endless.

    It’s a crossword.

    It’s for fun.

    Perhaps we should ask the Guardian to print something like this above every puzzle.

    The characters and events used in this crossword are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or dead is merely coincidental. Where historic events and characters are concerned, in certain cases incidents, characters and timelines have been changed for cruciverbal purposes. Any references to real people, events or places are for cruciverbal purposes only.

    P.S. I know there is no such word as “cruciverbal”

  36. Robi @35

    Thanks. It isn’t in SOED 2007 which I have online although cruciverbalist is. But now I’ve heaved out and dusted down the Chambers 1993 and it’s in there too!

    I was just covering myself as one can be severely chastised on here for such errors! 😉

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